"So they've known for at least 14 hours that the city would flood to the level of the lake."
Guess they've know for longer than that. I was searching "levees" for some photos and found this oddly prescient article from June. Talks about shoring up the levees. I'm sure someone has posted this already, but here it is:
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1117780408271270.xml
Thanks for the link. Loved this gem of high quality dyslexic journalism:
"The high-priced protection system ringing much of the metro area was designed to withstand up to a Category 3 storm, those with winds from 111 to 130 mph. Now officials want to ratchet up the danger level to include Category 2 storms: those with winds from 96 to 110 mph."